THE Harare Province Police Protection Unit (PPU) has sent a contingent of 300 athletes to the 2015 edition of the Commissioner General Police’s Sports Gala that began yesterday at Morris Depot Grounds.
Team PPU is participating in 15 disciplines athletics, chess, cricket, netball, golf, pool, powerlifting, rugby, soccer (men and women), shooting, swimming, squash, table tennis, tennis and volleyball.
Seventeen police districts will be participating at the annual event that will be used as a platform to select members of Team Zimbabwe Republic Police who will be participating at the 9th edition of the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Corporation Organisation Games (SARPCCO) slated for Swaziland in September.
Speaking at the send-off ceremony of Team PPU, Officer Commanding PPU Senior Assistant Commissioner Lee Muchemwa, was upbeat that his unit will rise to the occasion and claim pole position in the week-long games.
“I am convinced that this year you are going to put up a brilliant performance and make history for our province,” said Senior Assistant Commissioner Muchemwa.
Speaking to Patriot Sport on the sidelines of the send-off ceremony, Superintendent Ndabazawo Nduku who is the Provincial Sports Development Committee chairperson said the games were important to men and women of the force and the PPU whose role is to protect important persons in the country.
“The games are important to police and more important to PPU as a province as our duties of protecting very important persons of Zimbabwe requires strong and alert officers,” he said.
“Sports are also encouraged by the Commissioner General of Police as we need strong policemen and women regardless of duties they perform.
“These games in general help deal with stress among our members that is when they mix and mingle with members of the force from other provinces.
“They will be interacting and sharing different ideas in their different duties and it also enables new and old friends to interact.”
The best performance by PPU in the annual games was a third position out of 17.
The police have contributed immensely to sport with long-distance runners Abel Chimukoko, Olivia Chitate and Cephas Pasipamire being products of the police force who went on to represent the country at several platforms in the world.
In soccer, players like Sebastain Mutizirwa made headlines playing for Dynamos and was nicknamed Ngonjo, street lingo for policeman.